Live Music in Minnesota in 2014

Most but not all of the live music that we see nowadays is free or cheap, mostly outdoor concerts over the summer months. Precious little of it is your conventional concert in a stadium or concert hall and with a ticket price in the $20 up to $100 range. Fortunately, there is a wealth of music in venues that suit our taste pretty well and most of it is free or maybe there's a $6 cover or thereabouts. So with that in mind, here's a quick tour of the live music that we saw in 2014.

Live Music in 2014 Best Shows

1. Robben Ford with Greg Koch Band—Lowertown Guitar Fest (Mears)

Ford really commands the stage playing world-class guitar in support of capable vocals and an engaging stage personality. The Greg Koch Band was a perfect complement. Make a note to watch for Dylan Koch, drummer, to emerge someday, and maybe not too far off into the future, as a great, great player. I mean, he already is that, but someday he’ll be recognized as such.

But returning to Ford, I’d call him smooth or pop-rock/pop-blues, and he is very very highly recommended. An underrated artist, at least based on what I have heard of him in my little corner of the world.

Mears Park is a downtown park in St. Paul and it is a terrific venue for live music, though it is subject to the weather.

2. New Standards—Music in Mears

I had the pleasure of meeting Chan Poling, keyboard player and vocalist for the New Standards and formerly The Suburbs, at a private party this year, and was embarrassed to admit I had never seen the New Standards. Consisting of Chan’s keyboards, John Munson on standup bass, Steve Roehm on vibraphone, and Poling and Munson on vocals, it turns out they have the freshest sound around, and create exceptionally original and pleasing versions of, well, new standards—songs that most people would recognize from the 1980s to the present.

Their signature  is the Suburbs’ biggest hit, “Love Is the Law,” featuring a really lovely little riff in the piano and vibraphone, which is really their signature sound as well. Online you can find versions of "Love Is the Law" with horn sections playing that riff, and with drums, and other instrumentation. If you see them live, and especially if you see them free, you'll probably just see the trio. Either way, this is a terrific band.

3. High 48s—Loring Park, Franconia Sculpture Park and Aster Café

A high 48 is a specific type of rail box car. The High 48s are a traditional bluegrass band based in the Minnepolis area. I tend to be more of a newgrass guy, but these guys do traditional bluegrass right, with tremendous energy and precision. They’re just fun, fun, fun, so we saw them three times this year.

4. The Butanes—Shaw’s

The Butanes are billed as a blues band but that’s just playing to the local market. What they really do is blue-eyed soul and light R & B, and feature the classic Hammond B-3 organ sound. Their version of Booker T.’s “Time is Tight” was a highlight for the year.  On this particular night, they also had Maurice Jacox singing with them and his version of Sam and Dave’s “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, Something Is Wrong With Me” was terrific.

5. Jim Campilongo--Lowertown Guitar Fest (Mears)

All I can say is the guy sitting next to me came all the way from Wausau, WI, to hear Robben Ford, but he left with a Jim Campilongo record under his arm. His “Blues for Roy,” a tribute to Roy Buchanan, was absolutely great and inspired me to go back and rediscover Roy on You Tube. Roy’s “Sweet Dreams” became another of my big hits of 2014 along with Jim’s “Blues for Roy.”

6. Communist Daughter—Music in Mears

7. Fort Wilson Riot—Music in Mears

8. Small Cities—Music in Mears

I have a Communist Daughter EP but the other two bands were new to me. Both impressed. Communist Daughter, meanwhile, was better than I expected. In concert, their music rocks more than it does on disc, with a fair emphasis on percussion, at least on certain tunes.

9. Rosie Flores—Lowertown Guitar Fest (Mears)

Rosie is surely in her 60s (age-wise) and she is a marginal guitarist and just a passable vocalist. But she just exudes personality and makes her songs her own by the force of that personality. So she was in fact very very entertaining. 

10. Willie & the Bees Reunion—The Cabooze

Willie & the Bees were the best "local" rock 'n' roll band ever in the Twin Cities, though it would be more accurate to say they were a blue-eyed soul band. Their heyday was in the 1980s, and this was like their 2nd performance together in almost 30 years. We used to see them at a downtown Minneapolis dive called Moby Dick's that was bulldozed in maybe the early 1990s.

The fact is they were pretty rusty, so this was for nostalgic value mostly. On that score, it was a fine event.

Live Music 2014 Awards

Best Artist—Robben Ford

Best Band—Robben Ford with the Greg Koch Band

Best Vocals—Maurice Jacox with the Butanes

Best Guitar—Robben Ford

Best Keyboards—Chan Poling, New Standards

Best Bass—Roscoe Beck, Greg Koch and Robben Ford bands

Best Drums—Dylan Koch, Greg Koch and Robben Ford bands

Best Other Instrument—Steve Roehm, vibraphone, New Standards

Best Songs*

*This list includes songs that weren’t necessarily performed in these concerts, but that these concerts inspired me to go out and find and listen to, such as  Roy Buchanan’s “Sweet Dreams,” inspired by Jim Campilongo’s “Blues for Roy.” Similarly, the Butanes covered Booker T.’s “Time Is Tight,” but it is Booker T.’s version that makes this list.

           

1. Sweet Dreams—Roy Buchanan*

2. Blues for Roy—Jim Campilongo

3. Time Is Tight—Booker T. and the MGs, covered by The Butanes*

4. When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, Something Is Wrong with Me—The Butanes with Maurice Jacox

5. Love Is the Law—The New Standards

6. Snow Day—The New Standards

7. Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Cryin’—Robben Ford

8. Speed of Sound—Communist Daughter

9. Ghosts—Communist Daughter

10. Supermarket—Willie & the Bees

Actually the highlight of the High 48s was a guest appearance by Derek Johnson, formerly of the High 48s and now of course with Monroe Crossing. He is brother of the High 48s mandolinist Chad Johnson who is also now leaving the band. The gig at the Aster Café on November 28 was a “farewell to Chad.” So Derek showed up, and Chad and Derek played a lovely duet, and then Derek played a tune or two with the band. I don’t recall what Chad and Derek played but it was indeed lovely and would be top 10 except I don’t remember what song they played.